German IT publication ordered to remove links to Slysoft

April 12, 2005

TheRegister reports that German IT published Heise is no longer allowed to
link to Slysoft. We all know Slysoft from their products CloneCD and AnyDVD both
applications that give consumers the ability to circumvent copy protections. The
measure will make Slysoft software probably even more popular. If Heise
continues to mention Slysoft software than it can face a fee of €500,000
which should reflect the "considerable profit losses" that may have arisen as a
result of the publication of the links.

While no
direct link was provided to download the software, it was easy to find -
something the court found unacceptable. Heise argued that the link can
also be found by using a search engine, but the court said that although
the publisher has a right to provide these links, the provisions of
copyright law limit the freedom of the press.

Originally, Heise was also held responsible
by the record industry for "advertising for the sale of illegal goods" and
for providing "instructions on how to get around anti-piracy measures",
but the court dismissed these accusations.

More importantly, the court ruled that the
music industry did not have the right to prevent the article from being
published altogether.

Read the entire article with
all the details here.
If you would like to read more about the German Copyright laws in understandable
English then visit http://www.euro-copyrights.org. Discuss this in our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues
Forum.

Source: TheRegister.co.uk